News Release

Edwin Bender, 406-449-24802005-05-11
HELENA, Mont. -- Minority candidates elected to serve in state legislatures in 2003 raised less money during their campaigns than did their white counterparts in 42 out of 50 states, showing a consistent and widespread gap in fund-raising, a new 50-state study shows.

Minority legislators clearly raised more, on average, in New Mexico, Hawaii, California and Maryland, the report by the Institute on Money in State Politics found. However, in the other four states -- Colorado, Delaware, Massachusetts and Wyoming -- the variation in fund-raising was smaller or the average was higher because one or two minority candidates raised significantly more money than other minority winners.

And while some states had a high number of minority legislators, those legislators often raised substantially less on average than did white legislators, the report said. For example, minority legislators in Mississippi raised 33 percent less than white legislators, on average, while minority legislators in South Carolina raised 37 percent less and those in New York raised 43 percent less.

A gap also existed between the number of minority legislators and their percentage of a state's population, the report concluded. Minorities make up 31 percent of the U.S. population but only 11 percent of the membership of the 2003 state legislatures, with all 50 legislatures failing to match the diversity of their populations, according to the report, Money and Diversity in State Legislatures 2003.

"Low minority representation at the state level is indicative of a democratic system that has at its heart fundamental flaws, which must be addressed before our notions of individual equality and fairness ring true," Institute Executive Director Edwin Bender said in releasing the report. "A one-sided governing body will produce public policies with a myopic vision."

The Institute is a national nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that collects campaign-finance reports from all 50 states. It researches the economic interests of contributors and makes the information available in a searchable format online, at www.followthemoney.org.

The study looked at the fund-raising experience of 836 legislators who had identified themselves as African American, Latino, Asian Pacific American or Native American. It then compared their campaign accounts against those of white legislators in each state, taking a comprehensive, state-by-state look at how minority legislators fared compared to white legislators and how much they raised from various economic interests.

Bender stressed that looking at national averages would have been misleading, because successful legislators raise varying amounts of money depending on how expensive it is to campaign in a specific state and whether the state limits the amount or sources of campaign contributions.

For example, the average amount raised by California legislators was $805,672 -- an amount higher than all the funds raised by all legislative winners in North Dakota, where the campaign contributions for all winners in 2002 and 2000 totaled $305,758.

"What is striking is that the funding gap existed almost uniformly, no matter what candidates typically raised in any one state," Bender said.

The report also found that labor unions were the only economic group to give more, on average, to minority legislators in a majority of states. Labor's average campaign contributions to minority winners exceeded those to white winners in 30 states.

Political party sources, such as party committees and other candidates, gave more to minority winners in only 10 states and less in 40 states. About three-fourths of both minority and white legislators received support from their political parties, the study showed.

"The national statistics show universal and systemic differences that cannot be dismissed as the result of local politics or individual personalities," the report noted. "Nor does the convenient explanation that minority candidates run for 'safe' seats explain the gap between the amounts of money that white candidates and minority candidates raise."

The Institute based its study on lists of minority legislators who had identified their ethnicity with one of four groups: the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, the National Association of Latino Elected Officials, the Rainmaker Political Group, or the National Conference of State Legislatures. The study was made possible through financial support from the Ford Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.